The Week 13 matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears features a team definitely looking towards the future while another hopes to keep slim playoff aspirations alive. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 13: 49ers-Bears featuring Vance McDonald, Alshon Jeffery and Matt Forte
We break down the Week 13 matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears.
San Francisco 49ers
Vernon Davis is now a member of the Denver Broncos and Garrett Celek is injured. Those two players not being available to the 49ers means that tight end Vance McDonald is getting a chance to shine. He didn’t have a lot of reps under his belt prior to this season, but in the last two weeks he’s managed to catch a combined 10 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns. The Chicago Bears have been stingy against tight ends this year, but the 49ers don’t have enough talent on the roster at this point to keep games competitive. It means McDonald could pick up lots of meaningless points down the middle just to try to keep games close. He’s worth a look in deep fantasy leagues.
So is Anquan Boldin. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert isn’t wowing anybody, but at the end of the day, Boldin is still a talented receiver even though his best days are behind him. He’s managed to amass 93 receiving yards in each of the last two games. That’s a respectable total, so even though he hasn’t scored a touchdown since Week 5, Boldin is still worth a look. Hopefully he can sneak into the end zone again soon.
Chicago Bears
After a rough outing against the St. Louis Rams in Week 10, and a Week 11 matchup against the Denver Broncos spent on the sidelines, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was back on his game against the Green Bay Packers last week. He didn’t score a touchdown but did catch a healthy seven passes for 90 yards. Nobody in the team’s receiving game has more value than Jeffery. He should be able to scorch the San Francisco 49ers, a team that has been very generous to fantasy wide receivers this year. He’ll be in starting lineups everywhere.
Running back Matt Forte may not be anymore. After spending a number of years as the focal point of the Bears’ offense, it’s clear that Forte’s time spent hurt and on the sidelines this year has opened the door just enough for teammate Jeremy Langford to demonstrate his value. With Forte unlikely to be a member of the Bears a year or two from now, it’s clear that Chicago is totally cool with looking towards the future. We haven’t seen a time-share in Chicago in quite a while, but it looks like the rest of this season is shaping up to be just that in the Bears’ backfield.
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